Former House Speaker and Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Obama’s planned executive amnesty will create a “civil war” in the Democratic Party, claiming there is already “growing panic” among some politicians.

Gingrich spoke with conservative radio host Laura Ingraham about President Obama’s promise to grant amnesty — unilaterally and without congressional consent — to as many as five million illegal immigrants living in the United States.

“It may well be the final destruction of much of the modern Democratic Party,” Gingrich asserted. “If you look at the latest polls on immigration, they are Obama’s weakest issue. The country clearly has rallied around the idea that the border can’t be under control when you have as many people coming in as there are.”

“The idea that the President would unconstitutionally — and I think clearly illegally, by stroke of the pen change the world — I think most Americans will find very unacceptable,” he continued. “And look at the position that it puts all of the Democrats up for reelection in the Senate.”

“My guess is that within days of coming back, the House Republicans will pass a bill that repudiates what the President’s done,” the former speaker predicted. “And the challenge then will be for every single Democrat up for election in the Senate: Are you going along with Harry Reid and Barack Obama and get defeated, or are you going to vote to overturn them?”

“So, I think he may be creating a civil war in his own party if he does this,” Gingrich explained. “And you’ve noticed at least two Democratic senators have already come out and said he should not do this. So I think there’s a growing panic on their side that this could be a disaster.”